Thursday, September 2, 2010

Amanda

So I met Amanda during Freshman Orientation summer of 2004 and she has been my best friend ever since; I always joke with her that I made her be my friend, but really I'm grateful that she was willing to be my friend. :) She's the person that I've known the longest outside of my family (with Ashley and Cassie coming in close seconds, since I also met them that same summer); we lived down the hall from each other that summer, and then decided to room together for Fall/Winter of our Freshman and Sophomore year; Junior year, I moved into a house for the Summer/Fall, but I was still always at her apt/she was still always at my house, and then I moved back in with her for Winter semester. That year in the summer/fall, we both left to serve missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - her in Antofagasta, Chile, and me in Tucson, Arizona. It's been about 1 1/2 years since I've been back, and a little bit less than that for her, and a few weekends ago, she graduated from BYU with a degree in English!! I'm so proud of her - she has worked so hard for this! But I'm also sad because today she moved back to California to start her new job. My best friend is now 2 states away. The good news is that there are still cell phones, cars (for visiting), and the internet (aka Facebook) :) And she'll be back in a year to go to grad school.


We have some great times together :) One time there was a party up on campus, and on our way back to our dorm, we rolled down the big hill at the library, and then looked up at the mountains and saw the moon larger than all get out coming up behind them - it was so beautiful! The other night we were up on campus with Jenny and Kerry (our other roommates), and we were reminiscing - we rolled down the hill at the library :) It was so fun!
And she taught me about old movies and music - my favorite singer in Bing Crosby, and I think my favorite old movie is either Roman Holiday or Casablanca.

Most of all, she taught me about what it means to have a best friend; I moved around a lot, so I have a lot of friends, but, outside of my family, I've never really been able to keep in contact with people. So to have a best friend who lasts even when you're not in the same place, is a new experience for me...but I know that, even if we never live in the same place again, I'll always be there for her, and she'll always be there for me :) and that's what being a best friend means.

First Days...

When you move, you have a lot of firsts all over again - your first night in your new house, first time hanging out with your new roommates, first time attending your new ward, and, in this case, another first day of school to go along with it. I decided that I wanted to tell you all about it :)

SUNDAY

I got up at 7:30 (for 9:00 church), and took a shower - a VERY COLD shower...great way to start off my day, right? So I got ready, didn't have time to eat breakfast, went to church (where I was starving!) - church was good; I think I'm gonna like my ward; there are a lot of girls though, and they flock around the guys...and since I'm not a flocker...well, we'll just have to see what happens. Anyways, after church, I actually got to spend time with my roommates! First time! It was good - we just went for a walk, and talked, and got to know eachother. Latter Sunday night, I went down to Payson for dinner with my uncle, and then I came back for my ward dessert night...except for I wasn't in a great mood, so it probably wasn't the best way for me to go to a ward activity with the intention of meeting new people, but oh well. Anyways, I went with my roommate, Cicily, and my other roommate's brother, Ben. Cicily is my age, and Ben just got home from his mission in Portugal 2 weeks ago. So we were standing there talking - the activity was on a teeny tiny 20x20 patio, and there were at least 75 people there, but probably more. Anyways, so we're standing there, watching the girls all flock around the guys, and I said to Ben, "I'll bet that if we just left you here by yourself, in less than 5 minutes, some girl would come talk to you." So Cicily and I stepped away, and - I kid you not - in less than 3 minutes, a girl had gone up to Ben and started talking to him! Within like 20 minutes, there were at least 10 girls surrounding Ben. Insane!

MONDAY

I guess Monday was ok...nothing too out of the ordinary; I went back into the classroom at work (I was at a different part of the MTC for the summer); guess who's in my class! My cousin! I told my boss, but she said that it's fine, as long as neither one of us get distracted...plus he's leaving next week to go to the Guatemala MTC, so I think it's should work out ok.

TUESDAY

Today was the real kicker: so I agreed to sub for someone today because Tuesday is my day off; I swear this teacher told me that the shift started at 8:45, so when he e-mailed me the plans, I obviously didn't look too closely at the times. So I got to work today at 8:48...a few minutes late, right? WRONG!! I was 30 minutes late! I was supposed to be there at 8:15, and class was supposed to start at 8:45! How embarrassing!! And then, since I'm trying out this new thing called exercise, I walked to work today, and was of course hungry again, but realized that I had left my wallet at home...good job, Jessica!

So basically...life is good :) Nothing that happened was particularly horrible, but since I'm so tired, everything seems magnified by like 50...luckily tomorrow I don't have to be anywhere until 11:00 tomorrow! Sorry if this sounds like venting...when I started writing this post, it was supposed to be funny, but I think I took a wrong turn somewhere...